This is incredible! It's a $50,000 fine and two years on jail for growing your own tobacco for personal consumption in Australia! It's TYRANNY!

Bob

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Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

EXCISE ACT 1901 - SECT 28 Only licensed producers to produce tobacco leaf etc. (1) A person who does not hold a producer licence must not intentionally produce material that is tobacco seed, tobacco plant or tobacco leaf knowing, or being reckless as to whether, the material is tobacco seed, tobacco plant or tobacco leaf.

Penalty:

(a) for tobacco seed or tobacco plant--2 years imprisonment or 500 penalty units; and

(b) for tobacco leaf--2 years imprisonment or the greater of:

(i) 500 penalty units; and

(ii) 5 times the amount of duty, worked out under the regulations, being the duty that would be payable if the tobacco leaf had been manufactured into excisable goods and entered for home consumption on the penalty day.

Note: See section 4AA of the Crimes Act 1914 for the current value of a penalty unit.

(2) A person who does not hold a producer licence must not produce tobacco seed, tobacco plant or tobacco leaf.

Yikes! And i thought the Aussies were wild spirits kinda like our rugged, old west guys. Makes you wonder what's going on down there. Maybe the tobacco industry has a direct link to the parliment, or whatever they call it. Sounds pretty draconian to me. What's the deal Aussies? Give us some background so we can defend ourselves here.Neal

Neal, I have three good Australian friends who I've known for years and not one of them would call the police to check on that law for me. Not one. I asked if they were afraid to ask, they said NOOOO! Not afraid! Just not worried because hey, they would never enforce the law.

How to make a police state - Make everything illegal then selectively enforce the law.

They should just grow some rustica down there. It neither looks nor tastes like tobacco and the seeds are different too.

So does this law apply to all Nicotiana or just tabaccum varieties. I'll bet the law makers never new the difference when they wrote the law.

Just a bunch of knee jerk reactionaries who don't know there doo-doo from a didgeridoo. Just make sure the subjects keep paying the tax and everything will be just fine...until we can think of another way to screw you...."it really is for your best interest"

Think I read some where it covered both but not local plant Duboisia hopwoodii plant Lee

This seemed so extreme, I spent more time looking into it. I found this, dated 2006.

Changes to excise licensing ...2.28 The licensing provisions of the Act are directed towards controlling commercial operations. It would not be consistent with those controls to grant a licence for the production of excisable goods for personal use. In particular, commercial operations would not include home» «growing» «of» «tobacco, home distillation of spirit or small scale production of biodiesel for personal use

It sounds as though THIS exempts home growing of tobacco since the previous law from 2002 was "directed towards controlling commercial operations".

Does that seem to be what they are saying??? 4 years later they decided it didn't apply to home growers?

But then they add "It would not be consistent with those controls to grant a licence for the production of excisable goods for personal use."

Does THAT mean that no license will be granted for home growers ever?

Could anyone write laws in a more twisted manner? Can they speak ENGLISH in Australia? From this I still can't tell if it's legal or illegal to grow tobacco at home in Australia!

oldhag, I'm aware they have prohibition against certain invasive plants and their seeds. I know they have prohibition against certain live plants with possible diseases that could affect commercial crops. Many of those have a quarantine period or approved inspection before they can be imported.

This is more a question of a prohibition like when the US banned alcohol. Thee's no concern that tobacco will go wild and become invasive and the amount of commercial tobacco produced in Australia is negligible quantaties.

Now I really want someone in Australia to contact their government attorney's office and ask. I don't have standing to send them an e-mail and ask, they would just ignore me, otherwise I'd do it.

I wonder if they have the same legal principle as we have in the US that they cannot ban all the tools and materials required to do a legal thing since that's the same as banning that thing which is otherwise legal. As an example, it is legal to make your own beer in the US, so they cannot ban sugar, malt, yeast and the tools required to make your own beer or that's identical with banning beer.

Hi all,as a first time grower I have done a bit of research which may answer some Questions. It IS illegal to grow Tobacco in Australia WITHOUT a licence to do so. This can be obtained from the Australian Taxation Office .... yeah, right...!!? The ATO (Big Brother) insist on this so as to control the illegal= lost Taxes (or "Chop-chop") trade in Tobacco. It's just another "Nanny State", money grabbing law If you want to grow Tobacco in Australia, just grow a "pair", get on E-Bay, pay your cash and "Shzaaaaam", you're well on your way to a Tax reduction, lol....Oh, and remember to request a plain, handwritten envelope from the Seller, they're usually more than happy to oblidge ...

Hi again,just reading some of the posts again, YES, you're right Bob Kemp, it seems that the Law makers do indeed speak another Language ... lol ... That's why we need Barristers in this country, to decipher the "meaning" of the Law! I'm sure they'd never issue a Licence for "Home use".The politics of the day is all about "Plain packaging" and "Tobacco harm reduction" ... I'm not too worried about any eventual problems with the Law, as those caught with ILLEGAL drugs seem to hardly even get a "slap on the wrist", given the chance to argue my point in Court, I'm sure that growing a LEGAL plant for self consumption would receive no more than a "pat on the backside"! It must be my Convict genes urging me to "rage against the Machine" ... !!

I'm sure they'd never issue a Licence for "Home use".The politics of the day is all about "Plain packaging" and "Tobacco harm reduction" ... I'm not too worried about any eventual problems with the Law, as those caught with ILLEGAL drugs seem to hardly even get a "slap on the wrist", given the chance to argue my point in Court, I'm sure that growing a LEGAL plant for self consumption would receive no more than a "pat on the backside"! It must be my Convict genes urging me to "rage against the Machine" ... !!

ok no the only way to get the permit to grow tobacco is to have a farm large enough to produce several hundred kg's per year or more so only for commercial use and its all about the ATO not having their hand in our wallet get this i also distill my own whiskey i can go to jail for 5 years i think it is for that the penalty for having 2 grams of dope in your pocket is confiscate it i think that goes only to a certain amount (i don't smoke the shit)my mum got done for having like 8 medium sized plants and 3 almost full sized plants and about a half bag smoking implement and other things concerning use of pot and she only got a $500 odd fine as it was only intended for personal use com pair that

WOW even here in Norway with all the shitty laws we are allowed to grow tobacco for personal consumption .. i guess sell ingit would be another matter but to get that typ of penalty i guess i guess i need to sell atleast half a metric ton ..

I had a brief period where I was interested in Khat (Catha edulis) And I found that Oz had one of the most sensible approaches to this "problem"

From Wiki: "In Australia, the importation of khat is controlled under the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956. Individual users must obtain permits from the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service and the Therapeutic Goods Administration to import up to 5 kg per month for personal use.[63] Permits must also be endorsed by the Australian Customs Service which regulates the actual import of the drug.[64] In 2003, the total number of khat annual permits was 294 and the total number of individual khat permits was 202."

And I had high hopes that this way of thinking would spread not only in OZ, but throughout the Western world.So it disappoints me inexpressibly to read OZ approach to home grown tobacco.

In America you can now get a license to produce Moonshine for Consumption if you allow the government to tax it and i believe thats what the Aussies are trying to prove with this is if you let them tax it you can grow it which is BS i have 4 stills and not damn no cop i sell to ever says anything cause they come to me for 35$ a gallon of hooch rather than 60$ at the "Legal" still.

there's a problem with guns is oz too.not enough of em.and most the fellows from oz I keyboard with on the forums just cannot understand our fascination with firearms.but they do have some handy-dandy little table-top distilling units, and also fab some very, very nice ones.it's all on homedistiller.org.rc